Cost-benefit estimate of transporting spent nuclear fuel by special trains

Special trains have been advocated by the railroads as a means of reducing the risk associated with the shipment of radioactive materials. Such trains would have severe limitations on speed, passing conditions, and train size. The resulting extra cost for special trains is about $20,000/average shipment. The question to be answered is, ''is this much reduction in risk, even if it could be achieved by special trains, worth the $20,000 per shipment''. A probabilistic risk analysis is performed based on the appropriate combination of the results of several government studies on nuclear transportation accidents. The cargo involved is spent fuel from nuclear power plants. The number $1,000/manrem has been advanced essentially as a utility function for radiation. Based on the $1,000/manrem number the value of the possible reduction in risk is less than $2,690/shipment. This value is substantially less than the estimated extra cost of $20,000/shipment